On the eve of his bid to become Scotland's first male European champion since David Wilkie in 1974, Ross Murdoch marked his summer of progress with yet another Scottish record and a silver medal to boot.

Murdoch, 20, who upset Glasgow's Michael Jamieson to win 200m gold at the recent Commonwealth Games, will be favourite to add a European gold medal to his collection tonight in the four-lap final, but recording his fastest-ever 100m time almost brought his continental coming of age forward by 24 hours in Berlin.

Lining up against Adam Peaty, the English sprinter whose meteoric rise has rivalled his own, Murdoch was first to touch the wall at the halfway point but was overpowered by Peaty on the second lap. The Derby man won in 58.96secs with Stirling-based Murdoch half a second behind in 59.33, lowering the national standard he set in Glasgow.

Murdoch is the fastest man in the world this year over 200m and with Daniel Gyurta, the Olympic champion from Hungary, opting not to swim his specialist event, is strongly fancied to claim gold tonight to add to his team's burgeoning collection.

The British breaststroke 1-2 came in the wake of Chris Walker-Hebborn defeating several more celebrated athletes to win the 100m backstroke title in 53.32. Walker-Hebborn and Peaty then teamed up with Fran Halsall and Jemma Lowe to set a new world record and claim a third British gold medal of the session in the 4x100m mixed medley relay.

In Nanjing, China, Duncan Scott, winner of a Commonwealth silver medal in Glasgow as part of Scotland's medley relay team, added Youth Olympics gold to his collection yesterday as part of Great Britain's 4x100m freestyle relay team.

Scott, 17, lives in Alloa and is coached by Steven Tigg and Elaine Johnston at Grangemouth AC.